I'm curious where everybody draws the line between a parts car or a restoration candidate. I know everybody will have different opinion on this and that there are a lot of variables such as skill, budget, time, etc., but I'd like to hear everybody's opinion on this. How much rust would it take for you to deem a car a parts car? How much body damage or missing/destroyed parts would it take? Would a well-optioned car make you overlook some rust or other issues and lead you to restore it rather than strip it down for parts?
In the rust belt we tend to save cars that sunshine people would consider parts cars. I went to Oklahoma for rust free but most won't travel that far and work with the best local option they can find. SPark
"Would a well-optioned car make you overlook some rust."..nope you can replace the options easier/cheaper than a rusted out cowl, quarters, frame rails or roof.
Depends... title, or no title... Bob and I cut up a 16k mile 4dr with no title -- Very nice car! Just wanted a few things off of it.
The car I'm working on, I've replaced the trunk drops, the lower quarters, the cowl, patched the doors, replaced the floors, repaired the fenders, and still need to do some work on the roof. Other than that, it's a pretty nice car, and I'm doing it for no other reason, than I can. It's not rare, it was ugly from the factory, with very few options, sure I could have started with a better car, but this one was realitively cheap, and it was in my area, so no shipping. It gives me something to do. If the torque boxes, frame rails, and shock towers were rotten, I wouldn't have even considered it.
A parts-car is any Maverick/Comet with too much rust, severe frame damage, missing too many parts, missing Title, or any 4-door.
Missing title is no reason to scrap a car w/o many of the things you have mentioned. I don't know abt any other state, but in Illinois a missing/lost title can be applied for thru Sec. of State.
In my case the donor Maverick, being a California car and I am living in California, the vehicle must stay in emissions compliance and be tested every two years in order to register the vehicle. I am building a 1973 Maverick, changing the motor to be taken from a 1988 Lincoln (5.0 H.O.), which would be illegal in a 1976 or 77 in California. I can do anything with the 1973. The donor had a nice black interior, the builder has a horrible interior. I am just getting started on this project so I have only parted out the 1976 and sold some parts and gave away the shell five days ago. The 1976 also had some rust, battery tray, right side radiator core support and the driver side hinge mounting area was close to pulling out of the car. Bill
The driver side hinge post on my Comet was the first thing I ever welded.... they can be repaired. In my case, some idiot tried realigning the door by slamming it with a 2x4 stuffed into the jamb. The end result was that he broke all the spot welds securing it to the rocker. Then, as insult to injury, the door was more or less just swinging on the upper hinge and that weakened that area. More welding there and that is all in good shape now ... finally. It was the main reason why my car went into its hibernation, along with some small repairs to the floors. The good news ... it has an all-new interior, and I have moved on to other details. Also, I saw a NOS hinge post panel for auction on eBay not long ago. If that was the worst thing wrong with a car, I wouldn't write it off because of that. Moderate rust would make me pass on a car, but that is mainly because I know better cars are available here. Cars last a long time here if not parked right next to the ocean... then they rust from the top down. I can tell pretty quick which junkyard cars started out where salt was used on the roads and transferred down here, too.
I've fixed a lot of vehicles that most would criticize were even less than a parts car. I replaced torque boxes, front frame rail and a complete floor in my 4dr, and that was amost 14 years ago. And that was after I put an engine and transmission and suspension and brakes on it, and before I did body work and paint. Up here in the SALT/RUST belt, you work with what you have. That was a special car to me, though--it was my first car, and was my first Maverick. For me, it was the challenge of fixing it that made it worth it to me. When I was searching for my latest Maverick, I passed on a lot of cars that would have been good builders, and held-out for one with low miles and original paint. I am currently in the middle of a cowl-repair-turned-restoration but, I'm still glad I went with this car. We are all human, so usually sentimental value and pedigree usually out-weigh the logical choices when it comes to fixing cars. (e.g. why spend $100,000's on restoring a basket-case Boss 429 Mustang, when you could just get a better car and build a clone?--Pedigree). I see a lot more people restoring their father's, grandfather's or family member's cars lately. A lot of them aren't worth the $$$ and trouble to restore (if you were trying to turn a profit or run a business) but they mean something to the owners that is hard to put a price on. Save them ALL, I say...but seriously, it's hard to draw the line in the sand when it comes to Parts vs Projects. JMHO
Sometimes cars come along you just HAVE to save, you know it's a loss of money, but isn't this hobby a loss for 99% of people anyway? Id consider any car for a resto as long as it was structurally sound. Because 90% of parts are interchangeable in these cars, I throw a nice set of heads and disc brakes on my 4 dr, theyll fit if I ever buy a 2 dr! Its the structural repairs + rust that take a lot of time/ money to fix properly and aren't transferabloe as easily Long story short. Rust is the deciding factor for me
If I had to guess, people are getting more of a tolerance for fixing rust buckets as time goes on and that parts cars are not being considered restoration candidates. Rust free cars are hard to come by. Hell, early Grabbers are getting hard to come by in any condition. For me personally, a ton of rust would relegate a car to parts car status. Rust holes in the roof or frame rails is a pretty tough one to swallow as that is pretty tough to fix. Cowls, quarters, doors, floors, and hoods are common rust areas, but they are fixable. No title isn't necessarily a deal breaker to me as you should be able to get a title as long as there aren't any liens on the car.
